Across China on Foot eBook

At the present time there are thousands of Miao now
able to read and write, and the work of this enterprising
missionary has conferred an inestimable boon upon
this people. When I went among the Miao I was
able, after ten minutes’ instruction, to stand
up and sing their hymns and read their gospels with
them. Miao women, who heretofore had never hoped
to read, are now put in possession of the Word of God,
and the simplicity of the written language enables
them almost at once to read the Story of the Cross.
Surely this is one of the outstanding features of
mission work in the whole of China. I hope at
some future date to publish a work devoted exclusively
to my travels among the Hua Miao, for I feel that
their story, no matter how simply written, is one of
the great untold romances of the world. As a
people, they are extremely fascinating in life and
customs, emotional, large-hearted, and absolutely
distinct from, with hardly a manner of daily life in
common with, the Chinese.

MISSION WORK AMONG THE MIAO

Whilst referring to mission work, it is a great privilege
for the writer to add a word of most deserved eulogy
of the United Methodist Mission at Chao-t’ong
and Tongi-ch’uan-fu, and to the kindness shown
by the missionaries towards me when I came, an absolute
stranger, among them in May, 1909. It is to two
members of this Mission that I owe a life-long debt
of gratitude, for it was Mr. and Mrs. Evans, of Tong-ch’uan-fu,
who saved my life, a week or two after I left Chao-t’ong,
as is recorded in a subsequent chapter.

It was in the old days of the Bible Christian Mission—­than
which the individual members of no mission in the
whole of China worked with more zeal and lower stipends—­that
a most interesting development in the mission took
place.

The mass of the Miao are the serfs of the descendants
of their ancient kings, who are large landowners,
and the Miao are tenants. In 1905 the Miao heard
of the Gospel, and came to listen to the preaching,
and thousands came in batches at one time and another
to the mission house. Their movements thus aroused
suspicion among the Chinese, there was a good deal
of persecution and personal violence, and at one time
it looked as if there might be serious trouble.
But the danger quieted down. The chieftain gave
land, the Miao contributed one hundred pounds sterling,
and themselves put up a chapel large enough to accommodate
six hundred people. A year later, a thousand
at a time crowded their simple sanctuary, and in 1907
nearly six thousand were members or probationers,
and the work has steadily progressed ever since.

I am indebted to the Rev. H. Parsons, who had charge
of the work at the time I passed through this district,
and whose guest I was for several months, for the
following interesting details regarding the methods
adopted in the running of this enormous mission field.
Mr. Parsons is assisted in his work by his genial
wife, who is a most ardent worker, and a capable Miao
linguist. Mrs. Parsons regularly addresses congregations
of several hundreds of Miao, and has traveled on journeys
often with her husband; and such work as hers, with
several others in this mission, is a testimony to
the wisdom of a system advocating the increase of
the number of lady workers on the mission field in
China.